The Africa Cup of Nations is now well underway, and making headlines for all the right reasons. Yet a vast amount of attention in the immediate run-up to the start of the compeition was focussed on the horrendous terrorist attack upon the Togo national party in Angola, which left three Togolese dead, and busloads of others shaken beyond belief.

The decision of the Togolese government to withdraw their team from the tournament has met with a mixed reaction. At first, it seemed the players themselves wished to stay in Angola and compete. This reaction is completely understandable—it would be terrible, would it not, to let the terrorists “win”— yet it seems all too likely that this was a feeling borne of a need to get back to normality as quickly as possible, which, for these guys, is playing football.

A major issue that has come to the fore in the aftermath of the attack has been the possible security implications for the coming World Cup, which kicks off this summer, in South Africa. While the South African authorities have rightly pointed out that equating an attack in Angola to a risk in South Africa is about the same as fearing a threat in London because of an incident in Spain, the events in Angola have done absolutely nothing to dispel international anxieties about the decision to award such a major event to a region with a reputation for instability.

The World Cup this summer will likely pass without incident, and hopefully give the world a hatful of examples of all that is good, not just in South Africa, but in Africa as a whole. While Pele’s assertion that an African side will one day win the World Cup may seem a few years off , it’s difficult to know what could happen once conditions in South Africa take their toll on the European and South American sides.

Now that the football has taken centre stage in Angola, it is important that as much attention as possible be focused upon the sporting contests on offer, so that the Togolese be left to grieve in peace. A great man once said that football is far more important than life or death; clearly, he was overstating the case, but, in this instance, the game can provide a welcome distraction for those in need of one.